User interface and methods for recommending items to users

Abstract

Improved user interfaces and methods are provided for presenting item recommendations to a user when the user selects an item to add to an electronic shopping cart. In response to the user's selection, a page generation process generates and returns a page that includes a condensed shopping cart portion and a recommendations portion. The condensed shopping cart portion may include a link to an additional page that includes controls for editing the shopping cart and/or includes additional information regarding contents of the shopping cart. The recommendations portion may include multiple recommendations sections that are populated using different respective item selection methods.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . Non-transitory computer storage that stores executable instructions that direct a computing system to at least:
 maintain user profile data reflective of item preferences of a user, wherein maintaining the profile data comprises monitoring a plurality of different types of item selection actions performed by the user during browsing of an electronic catalog of items;   select, from a master set of candidate item selection methods, based at least partly on the profile data, a subset of item selection methods to use to select items to recommend to the user, the subset including a plurality of item selection methods, but not including all item selection methods of the master set;   for each item selection method in the subset, select a respective plurality of items to recommend to the user by executing the respective item selection method; and   generate, for presentation to the user in response to a selection by the user of an item to add to an electronic shopping cart, a page that includes multiple recommendations sections and a shopping cart section, each recommendation section corresponding to, and recommending the respective plurality of items selected with, a different one of the item selection methods in the subset, each recommendation section including item-specific display elements that are selectable to add corresponding recommended items to the electronic shopping cart, the shopping cart section identifying the item selected by the user to add to the electronic shopping cart.   
     
     
         2 . The non-transitory computer storage of  claim 1 , wherein the page includes a link to a second page that includes shopping cart editing functionality not included on said page. 
     
     
         3 . The non-transitory computer storage of  claim 1 , wherein the page includes a link to a second page that includes shopping cart contents information not included on said page. 
     
     
         4 . The non-transitory computer storage of  claim 1 , wherein the executable instructions instruct the computing system to select the item selection methods based additionally on session state data. 
     
     
         5 . The non-transitory computer storage of  claim 1 , wherein the executable instructions instruct the computing system to select the item selection methods based additionally on data regarding effectiveness levels of particular candidate item selection methods for particular classes of users. 
     
     
         6 . The non-transitory computer storage of  claim 1 , wherein the executable instructions instruct the computing system to select the item selection methods according to a hierarchy that gives preference to some item selection methods over others, and based additionally on determinations of whether sufficient user data exists for using particular candidate item selection methods. 
     
     
         7 . The non-transitory computer storage of  claim 1 , wherein the plurality of types of item selections actions include selections of items to view in the electronic catalog. 
     
     
         8 . The non-transitory computer storage of  claim 1 , wherein the item selection methods are selected at page rendering time, in response to the selection by the user of an item to add to the electronic shopping cart. 
     
     
         9 . The non-transitory computer storage of  claim 1 , wherein the master set of item selection methods includes (1) a first item selection method that selects items that are related to the item selected to add to the electronic shopping cart, and (2) a second item selection method that selects items based on actions performed by the user prior to the selection by the user of the item to add to the electronic shopping cart, 
     
     
         10 . The non-transitory computer storage of  claim 1 , wherein each recommendations section includes a respective label reflective of the item selection method corresponding thereto. 
     
     
         11 . A server system comprising one or more physical servers that respond to requests from user computing devices, said server system configured to implement shopping carts for enabling users to select items from an electronic catalog for prospective purchase, the server system configured to maintain, for a user, profile data reflective of a plurality of types of user actions performed during browsing of the electronic catalog, the server system programmed to respond to a request from a user computing device of a user to add a selected item to a shopping cart by at least:
 selecting, from a master set of candidate item selection methods, based at least partly on the profile data, a subset of item selection methods to use to select items to recommend to the user, the subset including a plurality of item selection methods, but not including all item selection methods of the master set;   for each item selection method in the subset, selecting a respective plurality of items to recommend to the user by executing the respective item selection method; and   generating, for presentation to the user in response to the request, a page that includes multiple recommendations sections, each recommendation section corresponding to, and recommending the respective plurality of items selected with, a different one of the item selection methods of the subset, each recommendation section including item-specific display elements that are selectable to add corresponding recommended items to the shopping cart, the page additionally identifying the item selected by the user to add to the shopping cart.   
     
     
         12 . The server system of  claim 11 , wherein the page includes a link to a second page that includes shopping cart editing functionality not included on said page. 
     
     
         13 . The server system of  claim 11 , wherein the page includes a link to a second page that includes shopping cart contents information not included on said page. 
     
     
         14 . The server system of  claim 11 , wherein the server system is programmed to select the item selection methods based additionally on session state data. 
     
     
         15 . The server system of  claim 11 , wherein the server system is programmed to select the item selection methods based additionally on data regarding effectiveness levels of particular candidate item selection methods for particular classes of users. 
     
     
         16 . The server system of  claim 11 , wherein the server system is programmed to select the item selection methods according to a hierarchy that gives preference to some item selection methods over others, and based additionally on determinations of whether sufficient user data exists for using particular candidate item selection methods. 
     
     
         17 . The server system of  claim 11 , wherein the master set of item selection methods includes (1) a first item selection method that selects items that are related to the item selected to add to the shopping cart, and (2) a second item selection method that selects items based on actions performed by the user prior to the user selecting the item to add to the shopping cart, 
     
     
         18 . The server system of  claim 11 , wherein each recommendations section includes a respective label reflective of the item selection method corresponding thereto. 
     
     
         19 . The server system of  claim 11 , wherein at least some of the item selection methods in the master set use different types of user profile data than others to select items to recommend.